A not quite perfect place

Lighter work today than we usually undertake, but a task popular with the group for sentimental reasons – and in a lovely spot, which just needs occasional TLC.

The annual maintenance of the pond-side area at Wallingford Castle Meadows takes us back to where it all began for WGG with a pilot project in the early years of this century.  For most Green-Gymmers that is truly ancient history – positively Neolithic period:

Standing Stones of Stenness, Orkney

Only two of our number remember that first summer’s work on a project which extended over several years: to restore, and open to the public, a zone which had been entirely fenced off because it was just a wilderness of thistles, nettles, ragwort, and pond life.  There were weeds taller than ourselves to uproot, and a pond to dredge; a pathway to build, and steps to cut out; a dipping platform to construct, and gates to hang.  One of those members is now ‘C’; and the other, our webmaster. 

Since then, maintenance of the pond area has included: annual weeding of the path, usually adding some more woodchips as well; and raking up cut stuff on the banks, where a site warden has gone on before with a strimmer.   There were no woodchips to be had this year, but it was immediately apparent on arrival at the site that there was plenty of weeding to be done:

A less than promising view from the gate:

potential visitors could barely see the line of the path

Clearly a task for the energetic members of Green Gym, tooled up with trowels and small forks …

watched over by ‘Charlie’ (who was good at giving moral support) …

and only occasionally got in the way:

“Hello, Charlie! Any chance of your moving out of the way?”

Answer is NO

 

Once the warden was done with his strimmer (apparently scythes are coming for next year), there was some raking to do:

A few things have changed since we completed the overhaul of the site.  Some of the timber used in the hard landscaping been replaced (in some instances with recycled plastic).  There is an information board …

complete with photograph of original Green-Gymmers at work:

Figure on the left of the WGG snap is the then Group Leader

Hooded figure to the right is thought to be the present ‘C’

Also, the front edges of the steps had been highlighted, to improve accessibility for people with visual impairment.  So this year, there was an extra job to be done – and a new one for Green Gym – that classic task for the British workman: painting white lines.  Other volunteers said it was reminiscent of basic army training (“If it moves, salute it; if it doesn’t move, paint it”).  Enter the artist:

All in all – literally looking back, as we left – it was definitely a day on which it could be said, “You can see where we’ve been”:

Before

After

Exercise “as beneficial as smoking cessation”

Dare I contend that exercise in the shape of Green Gym is also more fun?

Today’s exercise equipment

The research paper which made that headline was from a Norwegian team: a follow-up to the Oslo Study, which was one of those late-20th-century epidemiological studies.*  The findings were stark.  Basically, of the people being tracked (male, average age 73), those who exercised, lived 5 years longer than those who did not.

* ‘Increases [sic] in physical activity is as important as smoking cessation for reduction in total mortality in elderly men: 12 years of follow-up of the Oslo II study’ – Prof Ingar Holme, Dept of Sports Medicine, Norwegian School of Sports Sciences, Oslo; S A Anderssen, Oslo Center of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, Research Support Services, Oslo University Hospital
British Journal of Sports Medicine (Br J Sports Med doi:10.1136/bjsports-2014-094522) first publ online 14 May 2015

Even allowing for other factors (also bearing in mind that by its nature, epidemiology cannot prove causation):

• 1 hour’s light exercise per week had no noticeable effect
• 2½ hours’ serious exercise pw?  Now we’re talking!  Those who did that, were 40% less likely than the others to have died during the 11-year study
• It made no difference whether that exercise took the form of going to a conventional gym, participating in competitive sport, or just having a very active lifestyle

The researchers’ conclusion (except they did not quite put it this way):

From all the different forms of exercise available, find something you like,
and just do it – because it’s sitting on your bum, which does for you.

Doing nothing won’t exactly kill you, but it reduces you to the point where your health can be as poor as if you had been invalided by a serious health condition.

At Green Gym, we go for the option of working in the great outdoors.  NB: as part of the mix of exercise during the week – I don’t think any of us would claim that one session of Green Gym a week will do the business on its own.  So let the good times roll! 

Admittedly, this does entail being prepared to work in all weathers: au soleil, sous la pluie – not so easy in a rural context to maintain that lightheartedly.  Today the outlook was decidedly mixed:

“Heavy shower day”, the forecast said.  In fact, the hailstorms did not begin until we were done, and safely under cover.

As is well known, rough winds do shake the darling buds of May.  In this case, they had also taken down a crack-willow tree.  The target was immediately obvious on my arrival on site, via the downstream entrance to the reserve:

The first sight that most volunteers got was from the other side.  From there it was clear that there was a considerable amount of work to be done to clear wood from overhanging a public right of way:

This was just the sort of job that appeals to a Green-Gymmer.  However, when it comes to speed, I have to admit it will not be any time soon that one of us is entering the World Lumberjack Championships.  Only one volunteer had actually to stand in the stream:

This does not happen at lumberjack competitions

By session end, the area had certainly been made safe.  Most of the wood had been stacked into a brash pile.  Some of the more substantial branches had been carried to another area of the site, and used as pathway markers, to discourage people from walking across a meadow area which features some interesting plants:

One branch had been left untouched.  This will have to be tackled later, by another group, equipped with a chainsaw.  However, it does not compromise the safety of the path:

Before leaving, I saw the first member of the public using the right of way, after it had been cleared:

Meanwhile – that being a task which only a few could work on at a time – there was another team of Green-Gymmers at work:

Their task, using shears, was to ‘shave’ the sides of the main pathway: cutting down to size some of the taller vegetation which hangs over the path when it gets wet.

And for members of both teams, walnut-and-nutmeg bakes at ‘half-time’:

This never happens in the conventional gym I go to between Green-Gym sessions